#batfam dragon au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

awhitehead17 · 2 years

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So close, yet so far

TimKon, Fantasy AU, Dragon rider Tim, Warlock Kon, Curses, Established Relationship, Fluff, Humour.

Summary: Tim never realised how much he took for granted when it came to his relationship with Kon. It isn’t until the two of them are cursed that he notices how much he misses all of those little things they do. With the curse leaving both Tim and Kon frustrated they each try to get by until they come up with the solution that’ll break the curse so they can be properly together again.

Enjoy! :D

A constant prodding by something small is what causes him to rouse back into consciousness. Not wanting to get up yet Tim grumbles and bats away the thing persistently poking him, when the poking finally ceases he lets out a sigh and settles back down so he could fall back to sleep. Unfortunately his relief is short lived because the prodding comes back and this time it’s in full force, while it wasn’t hurting him in any way it just happened to be more annoying than anything else.

A low growl and sharp teeth nipping his ear is what finally causes him to wake fully. Groaning Tim forces his eyes open and moans when he’s blinded by bright sunlight, he instantly covers his eyes with a hand and this time slowly opens his eyes to adjust to the light.

Another growl sounds out and Tim turns his head to the side to find his dragon staring intensely at him. The two of them have a staring match until the small dragon steps forward and nips his ear a second time, Tim grits his teeth and gently shoves the dragon to the side.

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’m up. Geeze Mela.” Tim grumbles to his companion.

After years of training and working Tim is a successful dragon rider who has long been bonded to one of the mighty creatures. Mela is the dragon he’s bonded to and he wouldn’t trade her for the world. She’s a metallic silver dragon with two short horns on the front of her head, she has leather wings that sprout out from her back and her body ends with a long thin tail. She can shift sizes, her smallest form (which she currently is in) is no bigger than a kitten and her largest size is taller than several buildings put together.

The creature lets out a whine and Tim frowns wondering what’s causing the dragon’s odd behaviour. Normally Mela is more than happy to let him sleep in, the little dragon herself being a late riser (which was adorably enduring for a creature of her kind) so why the push to get up now?

Dread starts building up inside of him at the thought of Mela being unsettled. “What's wrong?”

Mela darts off without another word and Tim finally pushes himself up into a sitting position from where he had been lying down, the new perspective gives him a chance to get a clear view of his surroundings. Tim freezes when he realises that he was in fact not at home like he thought but rather instead he finds himself in the middle of the street with various of people all staring at him as if he’s from another planet.

Now alert Tim rapidly looks around to try and work out what happened. Why on earth is he in the middle of the street?

Mela appears in front of him again, having flown back to him from wherever she had run off too. The dragon darts forward and grabs the edge of Tim’s sleeve with her teeth and starts tugging in a clear indication that she wants Tim to follow her.

Taking a breath Tim gets to his feet. He pauses when he feels himself tilt to the side unsteadily but once he’s sure he’s found his footing he stands up straight and follows his dragon to wherever Mela wants him to go.

He’s currently outside a store, one very similar to all the rest in the town with it’s one floor, bricked foundations and wooden panelled roofing. It’s not even anything special as it’s just a grocery store. Tim’s mind is still rather foggy so he can’t yet connect the dots to why he’s there and what happened that landed him to be unconscious in the middle of the street.

Mela leads him to around the back of the building and suddenly everything fades into the background once he sees what’s behind the store amongst all the trash.

“Kon!”

Tim exclaims his boyfriend’s name and rushes over to his side. Falling to his knees Tim scans him looking for any signs of injury or anything else. Before he could react further Kon gasps and shoots upright into a sitting position and his eyes dart around all over the place obviously trying to catch up with the latest events.

“Kon, hey it’s me, you’re alright. Okay? Just breathe, you’re okay.” Tim calmly talks him down and gets his attention once he seems to settle.

“Tim?” Kon blinks at him and Tim nods. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. You?”

Kon frowns, looking confused, and places a hand to his forehead. “Yeah… what happened?”

Feeling uneasy Tim shrugs. “I don’t know. I only just woke up too, on the other side of the store in the middle of the street. I’m guessing you can’t remember either.”

“It’s blurry,” Kon admits with a grimace.

A rumble gets their attention and they both turn to look down at Mela who is glancing between them with wide eyes, her pupils having expanded leaving no iris’ left. Kon smiles and leans down to stroke a finger over Mela’s head and spine, earning him a happy purr.

“Hey Mela, glad you’re okay.” Kon mutters to the dragon affectionately.

The scene has Tim smiling but sadly it doesn’t stay when he remembers where they are and the fact they can’t remember how they got there. Getting to his feet he dusts his clothes off.

“C’mon, let’s go, we’ll head back home and see if we can work out what happened.” He holds out a hand for Kon to take, his boyfriend doesn’t hesitate to reach out and grab it however when their palms are about to touch something forces them apart.

The two of them share a look before trying again. They wear identical frowns when their hands wouldn’t meet.

“Kon take my hand.” Tim demands, his tone just short of snapping.

Kon huffs and glares at him. “I’m trying. I don’t know what’s going on.”

When they try again the same result happens where their palms deflect away from the other. They try their other hands only to have the same thing happen.

After a moment Kon gets to his feet on his own and they try another time but their efforts seem futile because no matter what their hands wouldn’t connect. Tim couldn’t describe it, the best he could compare it to is two magnets repelling against each other when the same poles are facing each other, no matter how much force is used to get them together they won’t meet.

Pursing his lips Tim looks at their hands before looking up at Kon’s perplexed face before looking at their hands again. He opens his mouth to say something but shuts it again quickly after realising he’s unsure on what he’s going to say.

The two of them stand there in a disbelieving silence for a while until a rumble from Mela breaks the spell.

Kon looks at Tim with a determined look. “Come here.”

Before Tim could move towards his boyfriend Kon is already reaching for him with his arms open as if he’s going to pull Tim in for a hug. Surprisingly, yet not so much, Kon’s arms never reach him, they don’t end up wrapped around him in the way Tim loves so much. Disheartened Tim watches as Kon’s arms seem to bounce away from him whenever they get close, it appears like Kon is hugging a force field that’s around Tim although they both know that is not the case.

Kon eventually gives up and his arms fall flat against his sides. His boyfriend looks somewhere between angry, sad and confused. Tim’s feeling the same way.

“What the fuck happened?” Kon whispers.

Tim sighs and runs a hand through his hair before pinching the bridge of his nose. Something happened to them before they were knocked unconscious, they just need to remember what they were doing in town and go from there. It was Tim’s day off so he didn’t need to do any collections or errands that day and Kon – to his knowledge – was free of duties too, so what were they doing?

A sudden weight appearing on his shoulder gets his attention and Tim glances to the side to find Mela perched there, her small body curling around his neck like a scarf. She lets out a whine, as if she’s feeling the same heaviness of the situation as they are, and nuzzles Tim’s jaw in her own affectionate way. Tim lets out a small smile and strokes over her glistening scales with a finger.

As he strokes her an idea comes to mind. “Hey Mela, can you fly to Kon for a moment, go and perch on his shoulder.”

When neither of his companions protest, Mela jumps off Tim’s shoulder and glides over to Kon’s shoulder opposite him. She lands lightly and curls around Kon’s neck in the same way she had done with Tim. Seeing this Tim hums in thought.

Looking at his boyfriend he says, “Mela isn’t affected by whatever this is between us. That may or may not be a good thing.”

Kon raises an eyebrow. “Dragons aren’t usually affected when it comes to things magical. They have their own entity when dealing with things like that, as you would know being a dragon rider. Her not being affected probably means the targets are just us, no one and nothing else. That’s saying if the thing behind this is in fact magic related.”

“Just why?” Tim enquires thoughtfully. There’s such a big gap in their memories which plays a key part in what happened. Taking a deep breath Tim shakes his head. “We’ll figure it out at home. We’ll get out the streets and go from there.”

-----

The topic of how they’re going to solve this matter between them gets brought up again when they’re ascending the stairs to their home. The two of them had moved in together into a small flat above the local bakery just last year. The move had been the next step in their relationship and finally having a space they could call their own was exhilarating.

“We’re not going to my father about this.” Kon protests from a step behind Tim.

“Why not?” Tim questions with a huff. He reaches the door first and digs out the key from his pockets. “He's probably the best option we have to figuring this out.”

“We don’t need to get anyone else involved. We can work this out for ourselves.”

Rolling his eyes Tim turns around to stare at his boyfriend in disbelief. Even Mela, from her position on his shoulder, makes a noise that sounds like a snort. Tim raises an eyebrow. “As much as I love your optimism and confidence in us, I don’t think we can, especially if this is a magical occurrence,” he turns back to the door and opens it up, leading the way inside their home, “you’re a mage Kon and a powerful one admittedly but spell work is not your forte.”

The door slams shut behind Kon. “Hey! I could know something about this….”

Tim doesn’t even bother entertaining the idea. They both know this is out of both of their elements as much as Tim hates to admit it. In his time of riding he’s come across a whole wide of variety of things but nothing like this before.

Tim makes his way into the kitchen and takes a seat down at the table with a sigh. A glance at the windowsill where their sundial is tells him it’s mid-afternoon. As soon as he’s sitting, Mela silently uncurls herself from around his neck and makes her way down his arm and onto the table. Tim watches as his dragon potters over to the fruit basket in the middle of the table and grabs an apple with her teeth, the small dragon struggles to drag the fruit over to Tim but once she’s in front of him she drops it and sits back on her hunches looking rather proud of herself. Tim couldn’t help but smile. Knowing what she wants Tim grabs his pocketknife from his pocket and starts slicing the fruit up into small bite size chunks and feeds her the pieces.

While he’s busy with Mela, Kon had followed him into the kitchen and was busing himself in making them a couple drinks. Once he's done he makes his way over to Tim and holds out the mug for him to take and without thinking about it Tim reaches out to take it from his boyfriend but startles when he feels the same repelling force from earlier appear again. The two of them share a sad knowing smile. In the end Kon places the mug on the table and goes and settle in the chair opposite Tim.

In between feeding Mela and drinking his coffee, Tim looks over at Kon, his mind going over their situation and what they could do to solve it. “If not your father then who do you suggest we go to?” He asks after a moment of silence.

Kon shrugs, looking lost and helpless. “I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t want to involve him.”

Tim shakes his head, knowing a partial reason on why Kon is against getting his dad in involved. “Kon, this isn’t the time to be holding grudges against him. We’re going to need his help.”

Clearly Tim hit a sore spot because Kon sends him a cold glare. “He lied to me Tim, for years he kept it secret when I deserved to know!”

“I know!” Tim reassures him. “I know, I’m just saying we’re not going to solve this by ourselves.”

“What do you suggest then? We hit the library looking up every spell possible to see if there’s a record to what we’re going through, or if there’s a potion we can create and then we’d be cured?”

“That's what we need to find out. First thing we need to do is remember why we were at that grocery store. It’s not anything special, just one in the town centre. How did we get there, what happened leading up to it?”

A thump sounds out and Tim watches with both amusement and annoyance as Kon smacks his head against the table. “I. Don’t. Know.” He boyfriend grits out.

Tim recalls that morning from what he could remember, hoping something will click into place as he goes through what happened. “We woke up, it’s both of our days off so we didn’t rush. Once out of bed we had breakfast and decided on what to do for the day. You wanted to do nothing and stay in bed but I wanted to go out. We ended up leaving to do…. something?”

Kon perks up, throwing him a thoughtful look. “We bumped into your brother downstairs as we left.”

Before he could reply a chirp sounds out and Tim glances down to find Mela looking up at him expectantly with another apple by her side. When she had grabbed it Tim has no idea. Giving his dragon a disapproving look, he grabs the apple and places it back into the fruit basket.

“No. I’m not giving you another one. You can wait.” He tells her firmly. Not liking being told no, she opens her eyes up and looks at him yearningly, sadly for her the look doesn’t work on him anymore. “No Mela. You can wait until dinner.”

The dragon huffs at him, even sending a little bit of smoke his way, and turns around to face Kon. His boyfriend looks amused and Tim just knows she’s trying on that look with him too. Kon doesn’t fall for it either.

“If Tim said no, then it’s a no from me too. You know this.” He tells Mela gently with a smile.

Knowing she’s not getting her way, the dragon huffs again and this time takes off from the table and flies out of the kitchen to disappear somewhere within the flat, probably her nest that’s been built in their bedroom.

Looking back at Kon he continues the conversation, now remembering what had been said “Yeah, Jason was returning back to the bakery after running some errands,” Tim glances at Kon, “maybe we should go and speak to Jason, he may be able to fill us in on some stuff.”

Kon shakes his head, against the idea. “No, he won’t be much help. I don’t think we conversed, not that I can remember anyway.”

Feeling restless energy building up inside of him, Tim gets up from his chair and begins to pace the length of the small kitchen. His mind is split into two. He’s desperate to know what he’s not remembering and why he couldn’t remember, then on the other hand he wants to solve this situation with Kon. He wants to touch his boyfriend. Not being able to touch Kon, or even go near him, is driving Tim crazy and it’s making him realise he misses all of those little things they do. The holding hands, comforting squeezes, hugs, resting against one another.

As he paces across the kitchen on what must be his tenth round, something on the side catches his attention. Pausing his movements Tim steps to the counter and finds it to be a piece of paper with his own handwriting on it, it’s a note reminding him to visit Babs sometime later in the week.

Seeing the woman’s name gives him an idea, lifting the piece of paper up in the air he beams at Kon, feeling hope for the first time since waking up in the middle of the street.

“There is someone who may be able to help us after all!”

Tim shows Kon the paper and when his boyfriend holds out his hand to take it from him he doesn’t hesitate to pass it over, only remembering a second later when their hands repel that they can’t do that. Feeling his smile falter Tim drops the paper down onto the table for Kon to see, once he’s out the way his boyfriend picks it up.

“You want to go visit Babs.” Kon states after reading the note.

Tim nods affirmatively. “If anyone’s got the knowledge to help us, it’d be her.”

“When do you want to go see her?”

Checking the time with their sun dial on the windowsill, Tim shrugs. “How about now? She would be done with work and if we’re lucky we can catch her at her workplace instead of at home.”

“Yeah okay,” Kon agrees easily getting up from his chair, “the sooner the better.”

Heading for the front door of their flat Tim whistles for his dragon. “Mela let’s go!”

A moment later Tim and Kon are by the door waiting for the dragon to appear. When she doesn’t Tim frowns and whistles again. When she stubbornly stays hidden Kon laughs.

“She’s mad at you because you refused her a second apple.”

Tim shakes his head in disbelief, “I don’t understand why she likes the damn things so much. She certainly lives up to her namesake.” Turning back into the flat he raises his voice. “If you come now, I’ll give you an extra apple after dinner.”

A beat goes by and just as Tim’s about to call out again a flap of wings could be heard and his dragon finally comes into view, apparently the promise of extra fruit does the trick. Mela lands smoothly on Tim’s shoulder and curls around his neck making a purring noise as she does so and Tim rolls his eyes fondly.

“You wouldn’t think she’d be able to shift into the size of several buildings put together would you?”

Kon snorts, doing the job of locking the door behind them before they descend down the stairs. “No you wouldn’t, but that’s what makes her special.” Smiling Tim gives his dragon a stroke along her spine with his finger.

When they arrive to speak to Babs at her workplace, they find she isn’t alone. When they walk into the room and see the second person leaning against Bab’s desk Tim sighs and curses softly. As much as he loves his eldest brother, he didn’t want to be dealing with him that day. Dick will ask too many questions and be a nuisance instead.

Seeing no point in delaying the inevitable, Tim strides into the room without further hesitation and earns himself a couple of curious looks to his sudden arrival.

“Hey Babs, Dick.” Tim greets them with a restrained smile, he wished he was greeting them for a different reason.

Babs raises an eyebrow and leans away from her desk to give him her full attention. Her eyes flicker from him to Kon as his boyfriend comes to stand beside him, well as close as he could get at least. “Tim, Conner, nice to see you. You timed that right, I’ve just finished for the day. What can I do for you?”

Tim shares a look with Kon and turns back at Babs, though he couldn’t help the apprehensive glance he sends Dick’s way, and explains to her what’s happened to the two of them that morning and why they’ve decided to approach her about their problem.

Once he’s finished talking Babs is wearing a contemplative expression. His brother on the other hand looks concerned. “Are you two okay though?” He asks worriedly, straightening up as he speaks.

Tim waves his concern to the side. “Yeah, we’re fine, except you know the whole not being able to touch each other thing and the amnesia we’re experiencing.” Dick isn’t impressed with his answer and Tim acknowledges his flat look with a shrug.

“Are you able to help us Babs?” Kon’s voice brings Tim back into the moment. He turns and finds his boyfriend leaning against the desk opposite the professor. “Anything at all?”

“There may be something…” she mumbles after a moment. The red haired woman turns to Dick and points him over to the far wall of the room where a large floor-to-ceiling bookshelf is placed and instructs her boyfriend to grab several different books from her extensive collection.

Seeing that this is going to take a while Tim wonders over to a chair and sits down on it, making himself at home. As Dick runs back and forwards between the bookshelf and Babs’ desk he inspects the room with curiosity. It’s Babs’ classroom and where she holds all of her lectures, being a professor at the only university in the town grants her a large lecture hall filled with seats that slope to give each one a view of Babs’ desk at the front. The door they entered from is to the left and the bookshelf Dick is currently emptying at Babs’ command is on the right.

Kon comes and settles a couple seats away from Tim as Babs announces she’s got everything she needs. Silently the woman starts flicking through pages of different books of all shapes, colours and sizes, clearly on a mission looking for something in particular.

Mela, who’s been silently sleeping on Tim until this point, wakes up and observes the room before standing and stretching. She takes off from Tim’s shoulders to circle the room and ends up touching down by Dick who greets her with a stroke and a smile.

Tim’s unsure on how much time passes by as they wait for Babs to do her research but he sighs in relief when she finally announces she think she’s found something.

“I thought your current situation sounded familiar and I couldn’t work out where I had heard it before. Going through some of my books I wanted to see if I could find any record of something like this happening before and thankfully I was right when I thought I recognised it.” As Babs talks her voice drops slightly and every word she says is clear and precise, Tim imagines this is her ‘professor’ tone.

“This book recalls similar situations that you’ve found yourselves in. Where different couples couldn’t either, talk, see, remember or touch one another.”

When the woman trails off Tim sends her an expectant look, waiting for the catch. “Okay so what else is there to it? Does it mention anything about the amnesia? What about how we fix it? Can it be fixed?”

Tim’s a little stressed out by the end of his volley of questions and he knows it shows through by the tone of his voice and his actions as his body tenses up.

“Hey Tim, easy okay. We’ll get the answers, just be patient.” Kon calmly tells him holding up a hand to placate him. His boyfriend looks like he wants to hug him but unfortunately they know that isn’t currently an option. Also sensing his distress Mela flies back over to him and lands on his shoulder, she presses her snout into the skin underneath his jaw, offering her own support and comfort.

Tim takes a deep breath and settles back down into his seat with an apology. If Babs was affected by his outburst she didn’t show it.

“When you said you suspected the cause of this to be magic, you are right, it is magic. Although it’s not a spell but in fact a curse.”

Her words leave Tim blinking at her. He’s both surprised and not to hear that. Before he could question it she continues talking, running a finger along the page of the book she reads from.

“And like every curse, there is a way for it to be broken. What binds your love together has been undone. Correct what has been broken to become whole again.”

There's a beat of silence following her words until Kon snorts seeming incredulous of the whole thing and honestly Tim doesn’t blame him. “You aren’t being serious right? A riddle to break a curse that’s been placed on us. Of course, why didn’t we see this coming! Who would curse us? What have we done?”

Those are fair questions to ask but sadly none of them have the answers to any of them.

For the first time in a while Dick speaks up from his position next to Babs’ desk. “I can look into it, whoever cursed you most likely casted the amnesia spell too. I’ll do what I can with my contacts from the details you’ve given but it’ll be a long shot I’m afraid, that’s even after narrowing down the population into warlocks.” His brother looks almost rueful for how little help he can offer them. Tim takes back his earlier comments of him being a nuisance.

“Anything that may help would be much appreciated, thanks Dick.” Tim acknowledges with gratitude.

Closing the book with a loud bang Babs sends them a calculating stare. “So you two knuckle heads need to try and work out that riddle and in the meantime I’ll search through my archives to see if there’s anything else about the curse. Dick will do his part to try and find this wayward warlock.”

Seeing that there’s nothing else to be done or said, Tim and Kon agree and give their farewells and leave the room.

Their mood is sombre during the walk back to their flat. The two of them are quiet as they each reflect on the information they’ve been told. As Tim thinks it over, he watches Mela who’s taken to flying ahead of them and stopping to do a flip before flying back to Tim and repeating the process. He knows she’s showing off, trying to make him smile and while he appreciates her efforts they don’t much to improve his mood.

He and Kon only speak again once they’re back at their flat. It’s now late and past dinner time, not that it’s going to stop them from eating, Tim sits at the table while Kon works on putting together a meal for them. His dragon has flown off into the apartment, most likely for a nap so once they’re done Tim will make sure to leave some food out for her.

“What binds your love together has been undone. Correct what has been broken to become whole again.”

Tim repeats Babs’ words from earlier, wondering what the hell they mean. He asks Kon the question and gets a shrug as an answer.

“I don’t know Tim. Your guess is as good as mine. It could be anything.”

“Well c’mon,” Tim urges him, “you’re the mage between us you should be able to come up with an answer!”

Kon sends him an unimpressed look over his shoulder. “For the thousandth time, the correct term is warlock. You know I hate the word mage.”

“I could call you a wizard if you prefer?”

“Absolutely not. I’d take mage over wizard thanks.”

“I’m glad we could come to an agreement. Anyway, spell, curse, us. What do we do?” Tim bends down and rests his head against the table with a groan.

He sits back up a moment later in time for Kon to approach the table with two plates. His boyfriend places the plate down as close as he could before taking the seat opposite him. The two of them tuck into their food while discussing the matter at hand.

“There’s nothing wrong with our relationship, so it’s a mystery to what could be ‘broken’.” Kon comments with a frown.

Tim hums. “It’s also a question of what ‘binds our love’? Last I knew we haven’t participated in any soul binding spells or rituals. What is there to break?”

The two of them fall silent at the question and they both end up getting lost in their thoughts over the matter, thinking mostly about what it could mean for them.

After they’ve finished eating and have cleared up, having to swap places so they could each do the chores of cleaning and putting away the dishes, they decide to call it a night and start to get ready for bed. Where they would normally use the tiny bathroom together they quickly found that they wouldn’t be able to do so now, having to get ready separately Tim uses the opportunity to prepare some snacks for Mela (making sure to give her extra apple) while Kon uses the bathroom and once he's done Tim takes his turn.

Because of their situation they were apprehensive about getting into bed, unsure on how it was going to work. Since they couldn’t touch each other it raises the question of whether their bed would be big enough for the two of them to be in at the same time. They decide to give it a go and see what happens, depending on how the night goes depends on what actions they take.

The next week proves to be challenging. Both Tim and Kon are growing more agitated each passing day with their situation, not being able to touch one another is driving them both insane. One of the only things keeping Tim sane is that he’s able to keep Mela close to him and also that at least he and Kon can be somewhat near one another even if they aren’t touching.

They keep up with their jobs, their work keeping them fairly distracted from their issue when they’re not at home. There’s been no updates from neither Babs nor Dick which frustrates Tim but he understands.

A breakthrough hits Tim while he’s out riding Mela.

The two of them go out flying at least twice a week that’s for fun, they cross over the town and over to the nearby coast, sometimes they’d adventure further to some nearby mountains or visit a neighbouring town just to change things up.

On this particular day Tim and Mela were visiting another town, Tim had wanted to drop by to see some friends while he had free times between jobs and while the two of them walked through town, Mela currently the size of a horse who was striding alongside him, they came across a large metal grid in the shape of a heart. On this metal framing there were hundreds of little padlocks, all different shapes, sizes and colours, some had inscriptions on them while others were plain.

Seeing this Tim stops dead in his tracks as the revelation hits him like a freight train.

Their padlock. His and Kon’s padlock is the key to undoing the curse that’s been placed on them. Back in their own town, on their own local love lock frame, he and Kon have a padlock themselves, one of which they locked in place together when after they shared their first “I love you.”

Tim thinks it over, the lock must have come magically undone when they got cursed, perhaps if they go and visit the padlock and relock it then the curse may lift. If that isn’t the case then maybe they get themselves a new lock which may do the trick. Tim’s not sure but what he is sure of is his next steps. Turning to Mela he gets his dragon’s attention as she had been drawn to two cats playing down the street. If Tim hadn’t been one-track minded he would have found Mela’s curiosity rather amusing.

“Mela. C’mon let’s go, it’s home time.” Tim waits for her to focus on him and seeing what he wants she lowers her body down so he could swing up onto her back onto the saddle placed there. Within seconds she’s launched into the air and the two of them are making their way back home. Mela’s smaller form making it easier to glide through the air making the journey quicker than what it would have been if she had been full size.

Once they touch down, Tim dismantles and takes off in a sprint to go and find Kon. Considering the day and time, he should be able to find his boyfriend near the outskirts of town at the arena. The town had a makeshift arena, one that had been created by teenagers who wanted to practice their magic and sword fighting away from adults, over time it became an official place to do practising on and for lessons to be taught at. Kon would be here doing lessons in offense and defensive magic to young warlocks.

As expected he finds Kon in the middle of the arena in front of a small group of kids. Not caring about the audience Tim sprints over the group shouting Kon’s name. In his determination and lack of awareness, Tim realises he’s going to fast too late and is unable to stop himself from crashing into Kon, unfortunately due to their circumstances Tim simply bounces off Kon and lands in the dirt on his ass.

“Tim! Gods above are you okay? What’s going on?” Kon exclaims his concern and looks at Tim with a mixture of worry and bewilderment.

Ignoring his now bruised coccyx, Tim stands up and dusts himself off. “I’ve worked it out! I know how we can break the curse!”

Kon blinks at him in a shocked silence for several moments. It gives Tim the perfect opportunity to look into his beautiful blue eyes which were reflecting the sun high in the sky that day. The moment is broken when one of the young kids Kon had been teaching speaks up, reminding the two of them they had an audience.

“Class dismissed. I’ll see you guys next week.” Kon calls out distractedly. The group all grumble but head away without any complaints.

Tim launches into an explanation about his day and how it lead to him working out that their padlock may be the key to breaking the curse. When he first started talking Kon looked intrigued and eager, as his story went on it changed to one of confusion before ending with an expression of understanding.

“We need to go to that love lock frame, now!”

The two of them break out into a run in the direction towards the love locks, Tim’s is mildly aware of Mela flying behind them, his dragon having shifted into her smallest form while they had been talking.

Minutes later they reach the frame and the two of them immediately start scanning for where they had placed theirs all those years ago, many more have been added since then making it more difficult to find.

“Here!”

Kon’s shout gets his attention and Tim hurries over to where his boyfriend is standing at the opposite end of the frame, this one being in the shape of the word ‘love’, and Tim looks where Kon is pointing to see that their padlock is unlocked. Tim observes the lock, it’s the same as he remembers, a classic square padlock with a keyhole at the bottom of it. The colour is a shimmering sliver that reflects colourfully in the sunlight, it’s the same silver that covers Mela. Kon had picked the lock up for them with Mela in his mind. Tim had melted when Kon shared the reasoning with him, it meant more than anything about how accepting his boyfriend is of his dragon. Wanting Kon to have his mark on it too, Tim engraved Kon’s family symbol onto the front of the lock, the symbol itself resembling an ‘S’ shape.

Kon holds the now open padlock in his palm and shows it to Tim. “So we just simply lock this back into place and the curse will break?” Disbelief bleeds into his tone as he talks and Tim could only shrug in response.

“Maybe? I don’t know, this is just a guess.”

Taking a deep breath Kon shuffles closer to the frame and fits the lock into place, just before he closes it Tim gets in as close as he could and allows his hand to hover over Kon’s as his boyfriend locks the padlock shut. An audible click sounds out and a heavy pause follows the silence. Tim and Kon share a frown, the two of them waiting for something to happen, not that they knew what they were waiting for.

“Did it work?” Kon asks.

Tim glances down at his hand to find it still hovering above Kon’s and his heart drops. He still can’t touch Kon.

“I don’t think so.” Tim says despairingly. On his shoulder Mela lets out a low noise and pushes her snout into Tim’s jaw, offering a comforting touch. Tim backs away and runs a hand through his hair feeling disheartened and agitated. “Back to the drawing board it is.”

“Hey,” Kon calls out to him and instinctively Tim turns to look at him, “I love you. That hasn’t changed.”

At Kon’s firm declaration Tim smiles, “I know, I love you too.”

His boyfriend steps in close and keeps eye contact, his expression now showing determination. “We’ll figure it-”

Tim blinks when Kon abruptly stops talking. He sends his boyfriend a concerned glance, “Kon? You okay?” And that’s when he feels it, a gentle nudge against his foot. Looking down Tim’s eyes widen when he sees the tip of Kon’s boot nudging against his, he had stepped in too close and accidently hit Tim’s foot with his own, this being something that shouldn’t have been possible because of the curse.

It takes a moment for the realization of what that tiny touch means. When it does finally sink in Tim snaps his head at the same time as Kon and instantly they’re moving towards each other, immediately wrapping their arms around the other because they now could. Feeling Kon’s arms around him makes him want to sob, the relief he’s feeling run through his body isn’t like anything he’s felt before, he knew he missed it but didn’t realise how much until now. He doesn’t want to let Kon ago again.

Being embraced by his boyfriend for the first time in a week Tim loses track of time. He doesn’t know how long they stand there hugging but they only pull apart when Mela begins to restlessly wiggle in between them and starts making impatient noises. They each laugh and even though they separate they don’t let go of one another.

“We should probably head home don’t you think?” Kon says with a wide smile.

Tim couldn’t help but reciprocate the gesture, he squeezes the hand still tightly holding onto Kon. “I think that’s a good idea.” He reaches up with the other hand and strokes Mela who’s settled on his shoulder with her tail curling around his neck, “I believe this one is getting impatient.”

Kon fondly rolls his eyes. “Kids these days huh?”

“Can’t take them anywhere!” Tim jokes with a laugh and knowing they were talking about her Mela nips harshly at his ear causing Tim to wince but it doesn’t stop him from laughing.

As they walk down the path, heading home, all Tim could think of is where their hands are joined and how right it feels. He knows there’s still work to be done, after all the wayward warlock hasn’t been caught yet and there’s still the problem about their amnesia but for now Tim can relish in the fact he gets to hold Kon again after what feels like forever without being able to do so.

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